The letters on one side were indistinct, but on the other an 'R' was clearly visible with what looked like an 'I' after it. "Some budding romance?" I asked, "did you know who they were?"

"Oh yes, I knew them", said Mary Smith, "it says RH loves MS."

心一边的字母已无法辨认了，但在另一边，字母“R”清晰可见，后面还有个像是“I”的字母。“初恋罗曼史?”我问道，“你知道他们是谁吗?”

“唔，我知道。”玛丽·史密斯说，“写的是‘RH爱MS’。

I realised that I could be getting out of my depth, and longed to be in my office, away from here and this old lady, snug, and with a mug of tea in my hand.

She went on, "He had a penknife with a spike for getting stones from a horse's hoof, and I helped him to carve my initials. We were very much in love, but he was going away, and could not tell me what he was involved in the army. I had guessed of course. It was the last evening we ever spent together，because he went away the next day, back to his Unit."

我意识到我可能涉入太深了，真希望自己身在办公室，远离这个地方和这个老年女士，手里还端着杯茶，舒舒服服地。

她继续讲下去：“他拿着一把袖珍折刀，折刀上嵌有长钉，那种长钉可以用来挖出夹在马蹄上的石块，我们一起刻了我名字的第一个字母。我们深深相爱，但他却要离开了，而且不知道他将在军队里干什么。当然我也曾猜想过。那是我们在一起的最后一个夜晚，因为他第二天就回部队去了。

Mary Smith was quiet for a while, then she sobbed. "His mother showed me the telegram. 'Sergeant R Holmes ... Killed in action in the invasion of France.'

"'I had hoped that you and Robin would one day get married,' she said, He was my only child, and I would have loved to be a Granny, they would have been such lovely babies' - she was like that!

玛丽·史密斯停了一会儿，接着抽泣起来。“他母亲给我看了那封电报。‘R?荷尔姆斯军士……在解放法国的战役中牺牲。’“

我本来希望你和罗宾会结婚的。’她母亲说，‘我只有他一个孩子，我本希望能做祖母，有非常可爱的小宝宝。’——她真是那么说的!

"Two years later she too was dead. 'Pneumonia, following a chill on the chest' was what the doctor said, but I think it was an old fashioned broken heart. A child would have helped both of us."

There was a further pause. Mary Smith gently caressed the wounded tree, just as she would have caressed him. "And now they want to take our tree away from me."

“两年后她也去世了。医生说是‘肺炎，胸部着凉造成的’，但我认为这是典型的伤心过度。如果有个孩子那我们俩就都不会这样了。”

玛丽·史密斯又停了会儿没说话。她轻柔地抚摸着那棵刻过的树，就像她曾经抚摸他一样。“现在他们想把我们的树夺走。”

Another quiet sob, then she turned to me. "I was young and pretty then, I could have had anybody, I wasn't always the old woman you see here now. I had everything I wanted in life, a lovely man, health and a future to look forwards to."

She paused again and looked around. The breeze gently moved through the leaves with a sighing sound. "There were others, of course, but not a patch on my Robin!" she said strongly. "

她又轻轻地抽噎了一下，然后她转过身来对着我。“当时我年轻漂亮，我爱嫁给谁都可以，我当时可不是现在这么老的。我拥有生命里所要的一切，一个值得爱的男人、健康的身体和充满梦想的未来。”

她顿了顿，朝四周看了一眼。微风轻轻吹拂着树叶，发出叹息般的沙沙声。“当然， 那时还有其他人，但他们连罗宾的一丝一毫都比不上!”她肯定地说。

And now I have nothing - except the memories this tree holds.

If only I could get my hands on that awful man who writes in the paper about the value of the road they are going to build where we are standing now, I would kill him.

“现在我一无所有——只剩下残留在这棵树上的记忆。

那个可恶的家伙竟建议把路修在我们所站的这个地方，我真希望掐死他。

Has he never loved, has he never lived, does he not know anything about memories? We were not the only ones, you know, I still meet some who came here as Robin and I did. Yes, I would tell him!"

I turned away, sick at heart.

我会对他说：你从没爱过吗，你活过吗，你从不知道什么叫记忆吗?你知道，不仅仅是我们，现在我仍能看见些男男女女像当年的我和罗宾那样到这儿来。是的，我一定要对他说!”

我转过身去，心里感到很难过。